Early Voting in Louisiana
Saturday morning we went down to the Louisiana State Archives Building and voted for Barack Obama. This location is one of three in East Baton Rouge Parish so we knew there’d be crowds — and there were. Luckily, they’ve got their act together and it only took us about 35 minutes to get through the line and vote. The location is using touchscreen technology (different than elections held in our usual neighborhood at other times of the year).
Here’s a partial list of parties on the ballot:
- Democrat
- Republican
- Green
- Independent
- Constitution
- Socialist Workers’
- Socialism and Liberation
- Prohibition
Yeah, Prohibition. Not the “Temperance” party of old, but plain old prohibition. Go figure. And two — count ‘em! — two socialist parties: the one you belong to and the one you wouldn’t be caught dead in.
Later this afternoon we’re going to a MoveOn house party to make calls for Obama.
I watched the faces of the people coming and going and waiting in line, trying to figure out if there was one particular demographic that might be dominating the crowd — but it didn’t look that way to me. It looked like a very representative cross-section of parish residents.
The (Republican) Louisiana Secretary of State’s office says early voting has been extremely heavy “due to heightened interest in the Senate (Mary Landrieu) and House races.”
Right.
Have you voted early? If so, tell me what it was like.
